Israeli forces on Tuesday demolished a mosque under construction in the Bedouin village of Wadi al-Niam near Beersheba, locals said. Heavily guarded bulldozers entered the village accompanied by dozens of Israeli police officers from the southern command and demolished the foundation of the mosque.
On May 2, a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, just north of Nogales, on Tohono O’odham land, a group of activists unveiled a banner of protest in front of a new surveillance tower, manufactured and operated by the Israeli company Elbit Systems. The group came to bring border justice, indigenous rights and power, and anti-militarization movements together with the Southern Arizona BDS Network to confront the Israeli/US partnership that is militarizing the US/Mexico border with increasingly profound effects on the people of this region.
Israel is preparing for another war that kills masses of civilians– and it’s preparing its propaganda campaign early with the New York Times happy to help.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was quick to congratulate Israeli soldiers on their relief efforts in Nepal, where an earthquake late last month claimed many thousands of lives. However, Israel’s humanitarian concern for the victims of disasters looks more cynical when set alongside its record once the TV cameras depart.
Chris Matthews says that Jeb Bush was pandering to Jewish donors in the Israel lobby when he embraced his brother. But guests Jonathan Capehart and David Corn say it was just a screwup. Really?
Despite what it knows and the values that define its corporate identity, Ben & Jerry’s refuses to stop the Israeli franchise from making money in Israeli settlements. Therefore, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel say it’s time for a boycott.
On Sunday, May 9th, The New York Times ran a front-page story discussing efforts across various U.S. campuses to divest from Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, echoing pro-Israel students’ claims that such efforts are divisive. Unfortunately, this piece, co-authored by Jennifer Medina and Tamar Lewin, is the latest in a troubling series of prominent New York Times stories that misrepresent the campus divestment movement and strip it of essential context.
In this essay, Jimmy Johnson contextualizes U.S. support for Israel as well as the various groups that comprise the U.S. Zionist movement(s) in the context of American settler colonialism by examining the ways in which white settler colonies interact and support each other. Settler colonialism is not limited to interactions between settler and native. It is an organization of power informing all settler society policies including foreign policy. One such foreign policy articulation is the way white settler colonies form alliances based upon recognizing each other as in a mirror.
The Forward has two articles describing the Jewish presence in the BDS movement: many Jews who go on Birthright end up observing racism in Israel and boycotting the place; and a rabbi argues that young Jews need an inoculation of Jewish education so as not to “capitulate” to BDS on campus. The NYT deceived its readers about this truth.
Max Blumenthal sends another report from ‘Birthwrong,’ a week-long tour of southern Spain meant to counter the pro-Israel indoctrination of the Birthright program. In Cordoba, the group explores the legacy of Maimonides,the 11th century polymath who kept close contact with the leading Islamic thinkers of the Spanish Golden Era. The group also visits Marinaleda, an Andalusian village know as, “Spain’s model communist village”. Blumenthal writes, “BirthWrong was centered heavily on the Jewish past, on moments in diaspora life that provided guidance for a future beyond Israel, or which at least offered a few inspiring tales of resistance against overwhelming odds.”